Origin of Species Variorum

Comparison with 1866

of more special use to that progenitor, or its progenitors, than they now are to these animals having such widely diversified habits. ↑ Therefore we may infer that these several bones might have been acquired through natural selection, subjected formerly, as now, to the several laws of inheritance, reversion, correlation of growth, &C. Hence every detail of structure in every living creature (making some little allowance for the direct action of physical conditions) may be viewed, either as having been of special use to some ancestral form, or as being now of special use to the descendants of this form—either directly, or indirectly through the complex laws of growth. ↑

With respect to the view that organic beings have been created beautiful for the delight of man,—a view which it has lately been pronounced may safely be accepted as true, and as subversive of my whole theory,—I may first remark that the idea of the beauty of any particular object obviously depends on the mind of man, irrespective of any real quality in the admired object; and that the idea is not an innate and unalterable element in the mind. We see this in men of different races admiring an entirely different standard of beauty in their women; neither the Negro nor the Chinese admires the Caucasian beau-ideal. ↑ The idea also of beauty in natural scenery has arisen only within modern times. On the view of beautiful objects having been created for man's gratification, it ought to be shown that there was less beauty on the face of the earth before man appeared than since he came on the stage. Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created that man might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet? Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceæ: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the higher powers of the microscope? The beauty in this latter case, and in many others, is apparently wholly due to symmetry of growth. Flowers

of more special use than they now are to these animals with their widely diversified habits, and might consequently have been modified through natural selection. ↑ Making due allowance for the definite action of changed conditions, correlation, reversion, &c., we may conclude that every detail of structure in every living creature is either now or was formerly of use,—directly or indirectly through the complex laws of growth.

With respect to the belief that organic beings have been created beautiful for the delight of man,—a view which it has .. been pronounced may safely be accepted as true, and as subversive of my whole theory,—I may first remark that the idea of the beauty of any object obviously depends on the mind of man, irrespective of any real quality in the admired object; and that the idea is not an innate and unalterable element in the mind. We see this in men of different races admiring an entirely different standard of beauty in their women; neither the Negro nor the Chinese admires the Caucasian beau-ideal. The idea also of picturesque beauty in scenery has arisen only within modern times. On the view of beautiful objects having been created for mans gratification, it ought to be shown that there was less beauty on the face of the earth before man appeared than since he came on the stage. Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created that man might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet? Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceæ: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the higher powers of the microscope? The beauty in this latter case, and in many others, is apparently wholly due to symmetry of growth. Flowers